Nordic Countries Announce Large Increase in Their Pledge for the Global Fund’s Fourth Replenishment

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 2

ABSTRACT Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland have announced a collective pledge of $750 million for the Global Fund’s Fourth replenishment. This is a significant increase over what these countries contributed for 2011–2013.

Five Nordic countries have announced a pledge of $750 million for the Fourth Replenishment period of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2014–2016). The five countries are Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. The pledges are subject to confirmation by the parliaments of each country.

According to a news release from the Global Fund, this represents an increase of over $150 million over the amounts previously donated. The news release was quoting a joint statement issued on 4 September by the five countries and the US. The statement coincided with a meeting between the leaders of the five countries and US President Barack Obama, hosted by Sweden.

The statement commended recent reforms and results achieved by the Global Fund.

“The vision and foresight of our Nordic partners is a critical piece of seizing this historic moment to defeat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria,” said Dr. Nafsiah Mboi, Chair of the Board of the Global Fund. “This is terrific leadership. We hope others will be inspired by and join these efforts.”

The Global Fund said that it will convene a pledging conference in late 2013. The announcement by Nordic leaders promised that they would “work together to ensure a successful replenishment.”

No breakdown of the $750 million figure was provided. The statement that this represents an increase of $150 million implies that the five Nordic countries gave $600 million to the Global Fund for the current replenishment period, 2011–2013. According to the pledges and contributions spreadsheet on the Global Fund website, the five countries pledged $620.5 million for 2011–2013 and contributed 100% of their pledges. This suggests that the $750 million pledge for 2014–2016 constitutes an increase of $129.5 million, or 21%, which is still significant.

The news release said that the contribution would unlock an additional $375 million from the US. The news release did not explain precisely how this would work. The wording of the joint statement was as follows: “This funding will leverage $375 million from the U.S. challenge pledge of $1 for every $2 donated.”

According to US law, the US cannot give more than one-third of total contributions to the Global Fund. So, the higher total contributions are, the more room there is for the US contribution.